James Swallow - The Flight of the Eisenstein

He staggered away, breathing hard. Kaleb blinked and saw a figure before him in the marble-white and green trim of a Death Guard captain. The Astartes was aiming a bolt pistol into the melee with great care. Instinctively, the housecarl looked to see who the target was.

Garro was oblivious to the imminent kill-shot, grimly fighting hand-to-hand with another warrior.

No! He cannot die! The thought burned like fire across the serfs mind. / will not permit it. The God-Emperor has chosen him! Kaleb raised the tiny gun and spoke a prayer aloud. 'Divine One, guide my hand.'

He fired. The shot was released an instant before Grulgor's finger tightened on his trigger. The stub-bullet from the handgun was of such small gauge that all it did was nick the metal of the bolt pistol where it struck the frame, but even that was enough to deflect the commander's aim. The bolt shell from Grulgor's pistol went wide, keening off a girder near Garro's head and arcing away in a ricochet.

Grulgor reacted with preternatural speed and turned, throwing his battle knife at the housecarl. The Astartes blade buried itself in Kaleb's chest, the impact throwing him down to collide with one of the gunnery bay's control lecterns. It all happened in an instant, barely a second from the report of the stub-gun.

Blood filled Kaleb's mouth, his throat and his lungs as a new sound crossed the room, a brittle, fierce noise, eggs breaking, ice cracking, glass shattering. Through his fogged vision Kaleb saw a thin line of dark haze issuing from one of the warhead spheres, hissing with virulent potency.

S**

'The globe!' shouted Voyen, kicking away from the thick of the fight. Grulgor's deflected bolt round struck a glancing hit, webbing the frangible glass ball with a spreading fan of fractures. 'Get away!' He yanked at Sendek's arm, pulling him backward.

Black gas was forming into a slow, malevolent haze, buzzing like a swarm of gnats. Work gangers close to the mist were already vomiting and clawing at their exposed skin. In moments, it would fill the width of the gunnery chamber.

Garro's line of sight swept the room and he found Kaleb staring fixedly at him, pink froth leaking from his lips. 'Lord!' he cried, blood bubbling in his throat. 'You are of purpose! The God-Emperor wills it!' The house-carl lurched up on to the conttol lectern, wheezing. 'His hand lies upon all of us! The Emperor protects!' Garro reached out a hand in a warding gesture as Kaleb threw himself forward, using the last of his strength to press down on an emergency release switch.

Sirens blared and in the steel ceiling overhead, huge cogwheels disengaged, letting walls of thick iron drop down towards seal wells in the deck. Garro flung him­self under the falling blade of metal, landing hard and rolling out to where Voyen and Sendek were crouched in the next compartment. One of Grulgor's men, the warrior named Mokyr, threw himself after Garro, clutching at his heels. Mokyr landed short, with only his upper body across the well. The iron wall slammed shut across him, the massive guillotine severing the body of the Astartes with a sickening crunch of bone and ceramite.

Garro's heart hammered against the inside of his ribcage, matching the pounding of fists from the inside of the thick gate. A phantom ache hummed through his augmetic leg.

'Blast shields,' gasped Sendek. He swallowed hard.

Voyen nodded. 'He saved our lives. The hatch is proof against the bane. The little man gave himself up to save us, and the ship.'

The banging on the metal doors grew softer and softer, until finally it ceased altogether. Garro got to his feet and crossed to the shield, placing his palm against it. It felt blood-warm, probably from the virulent chemical reactions of the rot taking place inside. He tried to block out thoughts of the carnage contained in there, the bodies bursting with liquefied organs and organic decay. He tried and he failed.

Kaleb's words echoed in his mind. It was clear now that the voice that had spoken to him of the Emperor and divinity through the fog of his heal­ing coma must have been Kaleb's. And now, the loyal servant had given his life in trade for his mas­ter's.

'I am of purpose,' Garro mumbled. 'What purpose?'

'Sir?' Sendek came to him, calling out to be heard over the hooting roar of the klaxons. 'What did you say?'

He turned away from the shield. 'Purge that com­partment! Tell Carya to vent the air in there to space! The Life-Eater reaction will spread to every one of the container spheres and release the entire war load, but it can't exist without an atmosphere. I want it off this ship!'

Voyen nodded. 'And the bodies in there, captain? They will be decaying and-'

'Leave them,' he snapped, fighting off the dark mood settling upon him. 'We must move swiftly, unless we wish to join them in death.' Garro frowned

and slammed Libertas back into its sheath. The die has been cast.'

Like the Endurance, the Eisenstein had her own observatorium on the dorsal hull, situated just for­ward of the frigate's command tower. It was nowhere near as large, however, and with the broad and tall figures of several Astartes crammed into it, the open chamber seemed smaller still. Decius's face set in a grimace as the hatch opened and another two Death Guard entered. The Apothecary Voyen stepped into the chamber with Sendek at his side and the expres­sion upon both of their faces was enough to give him pause. Decius looked across to where Sergeant Hakur was standing with men from his squad, and he saw that old Andus shared the black disposition of the new arrivals.

'Meric, what is going on?' demanded the veteran. 'I'm suddenly ordered to drop everything and come up here, tell no one… and I hear distant sirens and snatches of scuttlebutt from the swabs about gunfire and explosions?'

'There were no explosions,' said Sendek grimly.

'Where is the captain?' asked Decius.

'He'll be here in a moment/ Voyen replied. 'He's gone to fetch some others.'

Decius wasn't content with another evasive answer. 'When I was on the bridge there was a fire alert from the gunnery decks. An entire compartment amidships was sealed off. That's four weapon carriages disabled, according to the control servitor. Then I hear you on the vox shouting for an emergency decompression down there?' He pointed at the Apothecary. 'First the lodges, then Tarvitz, and now this? I want an expla­nation!'

The captain will give it to you/ the other man retorted.

'Saul Tarvitz?' Hakur broke in. 'What about him? The last I heard he was on the Andronius'.

'By now he'll be in the Choral City, if he didn't burn up on the way down/ Sendek said grimly. 'He broke protocol, stole a Thunderhawk and made for the sur­face of Isstvan III. Lord Commander Eidolon ordered that he was to be shot down.'

Hakur's disbelief was palpable. That's ludicrous. You must be mistaken.'

Decius shook his head. 'We were all there. We heard the order, but Garro disobeyed it. He let Tarvitz escape.' The younger Astartes was still smarting over what had taken place, his loyalties pulling him in dif­ferent directions over his commander's actions. 'It is sedition.'

'Yes, it is.' Garro's voice issued from the hatch as he entered, with the Shipmaster Carya and the deck offi­cer Vought following behind. The woman closed the seal behind them at Garro's nod and it was only then that Decius noticed the housecarl wasn't with them.

The battle-captain moved into the centre of the room and placed a folded cloth packet on the obser-vatorium's control dais. He took in all of them with a heavy, calculating stare. Decius had the impression that Garro was reticent to move on, to say the words that were pressing at his lips. Eventually, he sighed and nodded to himself, as if he had made a choice. 'When we leave this room, we will be rebels/ he began. The guns of our brothers will be turned against us. I will call upon you to do questionable things, but there is no other path now. There is no choice. We alone may be the only souls capable of carrying the warning.'